Tuesday's NHL showdown is a single game, ANA @ VAN, scored with a captain slot that pays 1.5x points at 1.5x salary under a $50,000 cap. The slate locks at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. PT).
Cutter Gauthier tops our model's ranking at $10,200, with a ceiling of 36.4 against a DraftKings average of 15.0. That ceiling is the highest on the board. Leo Carlsson follows at $9,600 with a 32.0 ceiling and a 12.3 average, and Beckett Sennecke sits at $9,400 with a 24.4 ceiling and a 10.9 average. Anaheim fills most of the top of the ranking, and the stars carry the biggest upside.
The value plays are where the lineup gets built. Nick Jensen costs just $2,000 and carries a 16.6 ceiling with a 9.1 average, a strong return for the price. Tim Washe at $2,800 has a 15.8 ceiling and a 6.9 average. On the Vancouver side, Liam Ohgren at $4,400 shows a 20.3 ceiling and a 5.9 average. Kevin Lankinen is priced at $9,800 but averages -1.9 for DraftKings, and his 17.8 ceiling doesn't justify that cost in our model's view. Lukas Dostal at $10,400 has the most expensive tag among the top plays and only a 12.4 ceiling.
The sheet doesn't include ownership figures, so we can't say where the crowd will lean. Note that Thatcher Demko, Troy Terry, Filip Chytil, Ryan Poehling, A.J. Greer and Ian Moore all carry an IR tag on DraftKings.
Our model's top lineup uses $49,300 of the $50,000 cap. It puts Gauthier in the captain slot at $15,300, then fills the flex spots with Sam Colangelo at $2,000, Filip Hronek at $8,200, Carlsson at $9,600, Drew Helleson at $4,800 and Sennecke at $9,400. The build pays up for Gauthier's ceiling and the two other ANA stars, then balances the cap with cheap pieces.
Lock is Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
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